Relating different approaches to nonlinear QCD evolution at finite gluon density

Abstract

We analyze the relation between evolution equations at low x that have been derived in different approaches in the last several years. We show that the equation derived by Balitsky and Kovchegov is obtained from the Jalilian-Marian–Kovner–Leonidov–Weigert (JKLW) equation in the limit of small induced charge density. We argue that the higher nonlinearities resummed by the JKLW equation correspond, in physical terms, to the breakdown of the eikonal approximation when the gluon fields in the target are large.